In 2020, Portugal climbed two spots to 40th in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) e-commerce ranking.
The organization’s Business-to-Consumer (B2C) E-Commerce Index shows that Portugal is doing better than in 2019 when it was ranked 42nd, indicating that 75 percent of Portuguese are using the internet, of which 51 percent shop online . Based on the proportion of the total population, according to UNCTAD, 38.3 percent of Portuguese citizens use e-commerce.
According to data released by the organization, Europe remains “the region best prepared for ‘e-commerce'”, with Switzerland topping the rankings for the first time, followed by the Netherlands. The only non-European regions in the UNCTAD table are Singapore and Hong Kong, in fourth and tenth place.
The two largest e-commerce markets in the world, China and the USA, occupy 55th and 12th place respectively and, according to the company, are at the top in terms of value, but in relative comparison the absolute numbers of the industry lag behind.
Shamika N. Sirimanne, head of the UNCTAD department responsible for this annual index, stated that “the divide in e-commerce remains huge”. “Even among the G20 countries, the percentage of people who shop online ranges from 3 percent in India to 87 percent in the UK,” the same official said.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has made it more urgent to ensure that countries that are lagging behind are able to reach out to others and increase their agility in this area,” said the same official, adding that the index’s results show that governments need to do more in this area. “If this doesn’t happen, businesses and people will miss out on the opportunities of the digital economy and be less willing to engage with various challenges,” concluded Shamika N. Sirimanne.
The index counts 152 nations as they prepare for e-commerce, a sector valued at $4.4 trillion globally, up 7 percent from 2019. UNCTAD ranks countries on the Access to secure Internet servers, their reliability, postal services and infrastructure, and the percentage of the population using the Internet and having an account with a financial institution or wireless service provider that offers financial services.
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